WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Leading Republicans warned Sunday that the Obama administration's $800 billion-plus economic stimulus effort will lead to what one called a "financial disaster."

The country will "pay dearly" if it executes the president's stimulus plans, Sen. Richard Shelby says.

"Everybody on the street in America understands that," said Sen. Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee. "This is not the right road to go. We'll pay dearly."

The Chinese ambassador to the United States has urged developed countries to help developing nations address problems relating to climate change, saying it is a "common but differentiated responsibility" for them all.

"China is ready to maintain close cooperation with the US," Zhou Wenzhong told a forum at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank, on Thursday, adding the country will continue to be "an active and responsible participant and contributor" to international cooperation in regard to clean energy and climate change.

Addresses Overflow Crowd at Woodrow Wilson Center

(Washington, D.C.) “Is there such a thing as ‘peak water’? There is a vast amount of water on the planet—but we are facing a crisis of running out of sustainably managed water,” said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute. “Humans already appropriate over 50 percent of all renewable and accessible freshwater flows, and yet billions still lack the most basic water services.”

WHO Executive Board 124th Session EB124.R8 - Agenda item 4.5
26 January 2009

Available online

English: http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB124/B124_R8-en.pdf

Spanish: http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB124/B124_R8-sp.pdf

French: http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB124/B124_R8-fr.pdf

Thu Feb 05 10:05:18 UTC 2009
(Reuters) - IBM is teaming up with Google Inc on a new software to move data from remote personal medical devices into Google Health and other personal health records (PHRs).

Patients will be able to exchange vital health information with their doctors and other health services professionals more easily, and in real-time, by using the IBM software.

"Once stored in a PHR, the data can also be shared with physicians and other members of the extended care network at a user's discretion," IBM said in a statement.

The HIV pandemic is continuing to destroy the social safety nets of sub-Saharan African countries.
Millions of children are being orphaned by AIDS.
Extended families, neighbors and NGOs are caring for many of these children, and in some cases young teens are caring for their younger siblings in "child-headed households".

A CIA report in 1999 considered HIV/AIDS as a threat to security, and General Colin Powell repeatedly stated that it was a greater threat than Iraq.

The article below gives an example of this interconnectedness.

Health Equity: Our Global Responsibility
16th Annual Canadian Conference on International Health

Sunday, October 25th to Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Website: http://www.csih.org/en/ccih/index.asp

The Conference will examine inequities of health status, and the impact on the health of marginalized, vulnerable and Indigenous populations of changing environments, whether these changes are due to climate, technology, the economy or threats to human security.

Materials from January 21 Webinar on Evaluating Measures of Success Using Clinical Decision Support

AHRQ has made available the materials from its January 21 Webinar on “Evaluating Measures of Success Using Clinical Decision Support” on its National Resource Center for Health Information Technology.

The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) at the World Bank, in partnership with the Faculty of Public Affairs and Management at Carleton University
International Program for Development Evaluation Training
Building Skills to Evaluate Development Interventions

June 8 - July 3, 2009 Ottawa, Canada

Website: http://www.ipdet.org/page.aspx?pageId=programInfo

WHO 124th Session EB124.R6 - Agenda item 4.6 - 23 January 2009

WHO Executive Board, Having considered the Secretariat’s report on the final report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health,1
RECOMMENDS to the Sixty-second World Health Assembly the adoption of the following resolution:

Spanish: http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB124/B124_R6-sp.pdf

English: http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB124/B124_R6-en.pdf

French: http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB124/B124_R6-fr.pdf

Sustainable systems need a strong economic infrastructure or the social competition for scare resources and limited political influence to spark recovery will inevitably lead to self-interest, protectionist measures by governmental institutions, perpetuating the multiple crises now underway. Development and deployment of rapid recovery solutions that have a global impact on environmental and societal systems can succeed with a shared communication platform for multistakeholder action.

Lucie Laflamme, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Dinesh Sethi, WHO Regional Office for Europe
Stephanie Burrows, Université de Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada
Marie Hasselberg, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Francesca Racioppi, WHO Regional Office for Europe
Franklin Apfel, World Health Communication Associates, Somerset, United Kingdom
WHO Regional Office for Europe - Copenhagen, Denmark - 2009

Available online PDF [38p.] at: http://www.euro.who.int/document/e92197.pdf

Jan. 28, 2009
By Tong Wenxun

Immediately following the terror of the SARS breakout and its mysterious disappearance, another deadly disease appeared on the scene. In 2004 the avian influenza virus attacked poultry farms and wild birds across the Asian countryside.

These two diseases share the same source: China. Their initial disclosures were also similar in that a few brave people revealed the truth to the world despite pressure from Chinese authorities to deny their existence.

Shankar Prinja a & Rajesh Kumar b
a. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, England.
b. School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.

Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2009;87:84-84. doi: 10.2471/BLT.08.062695
Volume 87, Number 2, February 2009

Available online at: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/2/08-062695/en/index.html